Georgia Southern University students from the Liberty County area have been named to the President's List for the Spring 2008 term. These students have achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average with a minimum of 12 credit hours for the semester.

The two top spellers from each third-grade class participated in Smiley Elementary's annual spelling bee. After many rounds, Cammie Hannula was named the winner for the 2007-2008 school year. First place went to Trevelyan Geer; second place went to Kylee Proffitt, and third place went to Christopher Lewis. All participants received a certificate and gift bag. Winners were awarded a certificate and trophy.

Sixth-graders at Lewis Frasier Middle School recently reached a helping hand back to the grade below by raising enough money for the younger students to get their reward for graduating from the DARE program.

Atlanta - The 2008 Report Card for Parents, a searchable database of statistics on Georgia's public schools, is now available and posted on the Web site of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation at www.gppf.org.

The Georgia Department of Education recently released its College and Career Ready Performance Index scores based on data from the 2013-2014 school year. CCRPI, Georgia's statewide accountability system, was implemented in 2012. It measures individual schools and the district on a 100-point scale. This rating system is designed to help all stakeholders see how schools are performing.

The real challenge in American higher education is not that we don't have enough college graduates. If New York Times columnist Charles Blow is right, it's that too many of them are majoring in English, art history, or ethnic or gender studies, and not enough in science, technology, engineering and math.

You can learn more about how a person thinks by looking at the small words they use rather than the big ones, according to a massive study of college admission essays conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.

Liberty County School System officials are taking precautionary measures today following a drive-by shooting Wednesday afternoon at Waldo Pafford Elementary, according to LCSS Superintendent Dr. Valya Lee.